Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
In the years, I’ve spent commenting here at Professor Turley’s blog, I have presented myself as an honest person, sensible and with humane beliefs. Many regulars think of me as sort of a blog “elder statesman” and one who has a rational view of the world. There are of course others, fewer in number I assert, who think me a fool and a knave, which shows you can’t please everyone. Professor Turley himself has expressed fondness related to my tendency to be honest and open about myself personally.
Yet through all of these years here, I have harbored a secret belief that I’ve avoided mentioning for fear that the esteem in which I’m held, will disappear in an avalanche of ridicule and disappointment. I have to admit that to a retired old guy on the wrong side of sixty years, my place here has provided comfort to my self-esteem and certainly the feeling that I can still find things in life to accomplish. To those who haven’t realized the obvious yet from my writings, I have my vanities and indeed my insecurities, so being a guest blogger has stroked those needy aspects of my ego. Since I’ve received much gratification from this, I have been loath to be completely honest about one of my more deeply held beliefs. I came across an article that impels me to break my silence and reveal this belief here and now. While in the eyes of some reading this blog, it might lower their opinion of me and expose me to ridicule, I must finally admit to you my dirty little secret.
Ever since the first nationwide “Flying Saucer” sensation began with the first “official” UFO sighting on June 24, 1947 by pilot Kenneth Arnold http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold_UFO_sighting#Skeptical_explanations Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO’s) have been a phenomenon lasting for the past 64 years, with most governments ridiculing the people making the reports and dismissing the entire idea. This is despite the fact that many pilots have made sightings and indeed many people in large communities, such as WashingtonD.C., have seen UFO’s in their skies over a period of nights. I personally believe that UFO’s are indeed alien spacecraft and that the possibility of this being the case is narrowed by the unfathomable size of the Universe, its age and the trillions of stars that exist. I further believe that the governments have covered this up to prevent what in their minds is public panic and to deny the truth that if UFO’s do indeed exist; our technological capacity could not deal with them if necessary.
This article in Huffpost on 6/17/11confirms my belief in governments covering up the details of these sightings and ridiculing anyone claiming to have made a sighting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/uk-releases-ufo-files_n_927351.html “The former Ministry of Defense (MoD) UFO Project chief [Nick Pope] is openly admitting to being part of what he claims was a U.K. policy of ridiculing UFO reports and the people who reported them.
“What’s abundantly clear from these files is that, while in public we were desperately pushing the line that this was of no defense interest,” Pope told The Huffington Post. “We couldn’t say ‘There’s something in our air space; pilots see them; they’re tracked on radar; sometimes we scramble jets to chase these things, but we can’t catch them.’ This would be an admission that we’d lost control of our own air space, and such a position would be untenable.”
My interest began in 1953, reading a book by Major Donald Keyhoe, USMC Pilot, Retired. In it he described the various documented incidents and the explanations given for them by the Department Of Defenses “Project Blue Book”, that was established seemingly to investigate the phenomenon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Keyhoe . Among others, Keyhoe had interviewed Air Force Captain Edward Ruppelt, who had been head of the Project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_J._Ruppelt
What I found so compelling was that perhaps 20% of the incidents could not be adequately explained and that distinguished observers, such as veteran pilots, were supposed to have mistaken everyday phenomenon, like weather balloons and Venus, for UFO’s. As my interest grew, it became obvious that our government would respond to any new sighting by first ridicule of the person(s) making the report of the sighting and then responding with explanations that were not credible. In the D.C., sightings in 1953 a mass of objects were not only detected by eye, but by airport radar and yet dismissed without adequate explanation.
What added to the government’s ability to ridicule were the so-called direct contact cases, first made famous by George Adamski: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Adamski and later by Betty and Barney Hill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Hill . Since the “contactees” in these cases seemed mainly to be self-serving individuals, they muddied the waters by being conflated with people who were seriously looking for explanations, or who had made direct sightings. Considering what the Huffpost article cited as details about the British Government’s policies, ridicule replaced research as a tool of institutional government investigation.
In further revealing my dirty little secret, I was for a time, in my teens, a dues paying member of The “National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (or NICAP). It was a civilian unidentified flying object research group active in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NICAP
While I never lost interest in UFO’s, my interest waned as my puberty began to assert itself and other things in life became more important. However, I have read enough about the topic to be certain in my own mind that there is much more to it than merely misidentification of known objects, moneymaking schemes, and public hysteria. In fact, an article in yesterdays Huffpost shows that the amount of UFO sightings has increased in recent years: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/26/ufos-pilots-history-channel_n_935847.html
As someone interested in ancient history some of the writings of Sitchin, Velikovsy and Von Danniken
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitchin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_D%C3%A4niken
also, attract my interest and tie in with my feeling about UFO’s. I am keen on the possibility of Alien visits throughout human history and the possibility that they have affected our history and progress.
So there you have it. I’ve exposed one of the final embarrassing secrets about myself and opened up to your possible ridicule and/or opprobrium. Since we have so many people here who are qualified to comment, given their knowledge of science and other erudition, I would enjoy your comments. In any event, I feel much better having gotten this off my chest and while I’ve exposed myself further as someone with quirky sensibilities, I feel a certain lightness and freedom in making my confession.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Thank you everyone so far for providing such an interesting and erudite discussion. Since it’s not my policy to get too involved in the Posts I put up for discussion, I won’t answer each of many good questions asked of me thus far. however, I do think given the questions raised that some further comments are in order. My first is to CM for reminding me how important Hynek was in his contributions to this subject, I should have referenced him.
Not only have I read his books, but I had the pleasure of hearing him in many late night discussions on the excellent Long John Nebel radio show, in NYC, in the 50’s and 60’s. The also had Maj. Kehoe. Those discussions provided the spark of my interest.
When I say I believe in them, my belief is definitely not one of faith, or of a “religious nature”. Were it such, it would be impossible for me to accept any evidence to the contrary. However, my belief is based on deductions that I’ve made from the facts at hand as I see them. Though I’m not specifically scientifically inclined, I do read and watch a lot about science. There are scientists today who do theorize that FTL travel is possible and who are delving into it. See the excellent “Through the Wormhole” series hosted by Morgan Freeman. That show also has had episodes on “String Theory”, particle physics and quantum mechanics. I can barely keep up with these ideas, but they engender a wonder in my thought processes as to the possibilities that the Universe is a far stranger place then we imagine. A corollary to this is as far as humanity has gone in science, we are still in our
infancy as to our full understanding.
As was mentioned by many, Arthur C. Clarke’s postulate about humans running into an advanced race, has been well known to me, since I’ve been an avid Sci-Fi fan since age 8. This was why I included references to the writings of Sitchin, Velikovsy and Von Danniken. Ancient history is also one of my favorite subjects and these men, with at times over zealousness, have
allowed me to dovetail both UFO’s, religion and archaeology together in my mind.
The creation myths and religious beliefs of the Sumerians (c 3,000 BCE), for instance, can be seen as referring to aliens creating humanity via cloning from apes and their step pyramids as landing places for Gods coming from a “mother ship” in orbit. “The Mahabharata” of India currently speculated as dating to 1,500 BCE (or even much earlier) is an epic description of a war possibly fought with airships, missiles and ray weapons. Ezekiel’s portion of the Torah, his “wheel”, “chariot” and “Angels”, could be read as descriptions of alien’s and their conveyances.
Too often the ancient texts available to us have been viewed as the writings of primitive minds, steeped in superstition and story telling bearing no relation to history. When Troy was discovered in the 19th Century, to some at least, ancient texts were looked at anew. While the “Arnold Sighting” gave rise to “flying saucer” then UFO interest, it was actually the latest (at that date) of unexplained things seen throughout history.
Having been born in the early 40’s I’ve watched the world around me change to a fantastic degree and the science I learned in High School become obsolete in light of new discoveries. Just in my lifetime the world has change phenomenally. If we don’t kill each other off, who knows what the future holds in store and who really knows what impossibilities will become mundane realities? I survived a terrible heart condition that killed both my parents by age 54, only because of technology that became available after their deaths.
Scientists like Slarti and OS should remain skeptical because that is what true scientists do, but I have no such limitation and so can speculate on possibilities not deemed possible.
There once was a blogger named Spindell
Who thought he’d avoid going to hell
Reading Von Daniken, not Chaucer
He’d see flying saucers
Every time shooting stars fell
It should be added that the sociological basis for the rise of such New Age fantasies is the decimation of an organized working class, that is, the only class that has the historic possibility or diverting humanity from this iniquitous social arrangement based on predation, perpetual wars & the inherent ecological destruction of private profits before people’s needs.
I have learned one thing in this last few years….Regardless of how I feel, I do not have to engage in any disagreements….and when I do, I have given you the power to have an affect how I feel…..
The 4 Nobel Truths….
1) Suffering does exist
2) Suffering arises from attachment to desires
3) Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
4) Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path…..
Next we’ll be hearing that wormholes & strings make possible a great gaseous invertabrate hovering in the stratosphere administering justice and deciding who shall have eternal afterlife.
Pseudoscientific speculation & wishful thinking about UFO’s are the new religion in an age of decay where the world’s once major religions are defined by sodomite priests & suicide bombers.
In a declining empire UFO’s are the new heart in a heartless world.
Slarti,
Thanks for the limerick!
Here’s a “relative” quatrain that I wrote many years ago:
I’m taking a trip in the rocket, my dear.
I’ll travel far faster than light.
I’m leaving tomorrow–but don’t you fret
For I will return tonight.
Elaine.
According to our present knowledge travel at nearly speed of light would be useless because the passengers would be killed by the radiation which would be of the order of intensity as the beam from the large hadron collider. This radiation would consist of nothing more than the space ship crashing into interstellar matter in its way. Of course maybe future technology could provide a shield.
Travel at near light speed would also require an enormous amount of fuel weighing much more than the weight of the spacecraft. The spacecraft could not carry enough of it as a lot of energy in the fuel carried would be wasted accelerating the remaining fuel. One way around this would be to use a Bussard Ram Jet which uses magnetic fields to scoop up interstellar hydrogen and causes it to undergo fusion reaction and generates a propulsive jet of fusion byproducts. Of course the idea of the Bussard ram jet may prove impossible to implement.
However we do not need to assume near light speed or faster than light travel. Interstellar distances could be bridged at slower speeds as long as the crews have some means of surviving the trip time, by breeding multiple generations during the journey or by suspended animation or perhaps by constructing robot crews that are not bothered by a trip of a few tens of thousands of years.
Elaine M.,
It is readily apparent that I am not either a physicist…..What I do know is that things that I thought I knew are not as concrete as when I knew them to begin with…I really believe all things are possible…whether I believe them or know them to be a truth or fact…I am open to new ideals all of the time….Wasn’t some composer deaf and still performing….before we had the invention of light….
Elaine,
I’m working on an answer for you… in the meantime I’ll leave you with this relativistic limerick (author unknown):
There once was a racer name Fisk
Who took an incredible Risk
When his dragster caught traction,
The Lorentz contraction
Reduced his wazoo to a disk.
OS,
You as a guy with forensic knowledge can surely attest to the fact that since you have started things have changed…dramatically….in depth and knowledge…Blood used to be typed…now its now to the DNA probabilities….But at each level it has improved dramatically…
Lee Speigel
lee.speigel@huffingtonpost.com
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UFO Sightings Increase 67 Percent In 3 Years, History Channel Investigates
“Unemployment, gas prices, and fear over global warming aren’t the only things skyrocketing — so are mysterious objects rocketing through the sky.
The Mutual UFO Network — the largest privately funded UFO research organization in the world — tells The Huffington Post that more people than ever are reporting unidentified flying objects, mostly in the United States and Canada.
“Over the past year, we’ve been averaging 500 sighting reports a month, compared to about 300 three years ago [67 percent],” MUFON international director Clifford Clift said.
“And I get one or two production companies contacting me every week, wanting to do stories on UFOs.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/26/ufos-pilots-history-channel_n_935847.html
To expand on the travel at the speed of light question. It has been proven that a single photon cannot travel faster than the speed of light. A photon has no mass, and can therefore travel at v = c = 299,792,458 meters/second (or, 186,282 miles per hour).
If a particle has mass, it would require infinite energy to accelerate to v = c and therefore would also require infinite energy to get it stopped at the destination.
AY,
I’m not a physicist. I was simply asking a question. Traveling at a speed of 186,000 miles per second is pretty fast. At that speed, one could reach the moon in less than two seconds.
Elaine,
Other than the G-Force…..and if properly suspended in the vehicle for travel…I do not see why it is not possible….Everything that everyone is arguing for or against is theory….They can prove that it is possible, how….They can prove that it is impossible, how….
Should planes not fly or have a greater drag if they have a 100 geese inside of the body flapping it’s wings….or does this not have any net affect on the outside of the airship….
Carlyle,
To be sure mankind has advanced in its scientific knowledge and technological development in the past few centuries. We have in our country, at present, many people and politicians who appear to be “anti-science”–of the type who’d commit people like Copernicus or Galileo to house arrest for heresy because of their beliefs.
*****
I wasn’t suggesting that there might not be other beings in other galaxies or solar systems who may be advanced technologically. I was asking Slarti if he thought it was impossible to travel at the speed of light because of the laws of nature/the universe. If Stephen Hawking wrote that travel at the speed of light was probably impossible, it certainly gives me pause for thought.
You’ve inspired me to make my own shamefaced confession… I’m a Donovan fan.
The same goes to computer technology….who’d ever thought they basically would have an electronic abacus…..reading 1 and O’s…..
I was thinking the other day how smart the smart phone really is…Although it can do a lot of great things….used to be…people had to actually dial numbers…which forced the person to memorize them or to write them down, look them up…now all’s you have to do is remember the name…if put in correctly….it reduces it down to a number which has been assigned to them….isn’t what we are really talking about basically numbers in science anyway…..
In conclusion…You think what we know as absolute…but is it? If it is absolute then we do we have change on a daily basis….
Elaine.
Somewhere recently I read that traveling at near light speed would involve exposure to radiation like that from the beam of the large hadron collider which would be lethal to biological life. However interstellar travel at lower speeds may indeed be possible for biological entities. They may be able to put themselves into suspended animation or they may use generation ships in which the distant descendants of those who set out are the ones to arrive at the destination.
We no longer consider using humans for planetary exploration but rely on increasingly sophisticated robot probes. Hypothetical interstellar aliens may have done the same using robots of a complexity beyond what is possible with our current technology. They may also use biological robots that appear to be creatures. They might not need to send more than the pattern for such creatures on the full journey, just activate the patterns to build them at journeys end. This might explain the humanoids ranging from long blond haired Venusians to grey dwarves with big eyes.
Anyone who looks at how far our technology has come in a few centuries and does not allow for the possibility that somewhere else technology has gone far beyond where we are now and uses what is possible at our current level of technology as an argument that others cannot do what what we cannot do is silly.
Slartibartfast.
Maker of fjords, you postulate that Hynek’s 5% unexplainable reports can be divided into 3 classes as follows:-
You assert that most of the 5% would fall into categories 1 and 2. If a sighting falls into category 1 it is still a valid subject for study and a valid recipient of the term UFO.
As for category 2, today it is possible that some secret high tech aircraft originating from the Skunk Works could be responsible for some UFO reports, but that was not so in the ’50s or during World War II when airman were seeing foo fighters.
As for category 3. I think we can rule out human intelligence being behind any UFO reports as humans with such a high technology would have used it to conquer and enslave the rest of us by now.
It is premature to assume that UFOs are actually space craft originating from creatures from another star. Certainly they appear to be spacecraft and certainly there is an intelligence behind their appearance but they may no more be real spacecraft than the army of inflatable rubber tanks set up in Southern England by one of Eisenhower’s generals was a real armored division.
There are so many possibilities that it is premature to assert that any one is the explanation. Consider these few:-
1/ UFOs may be related to beings that have lived on Earth beside us for many thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years but kept hidden from us;
2/ If indeed some UFOs are spacecraft whose original origin is another star, the occupants may not be biological beings from that star, rather robots better able to survive interstellar travel at high speeds involving lethal radiation or travel at slow speeds requiring thousands of years;
3/ The origin of the phenomenon may be another universe or another dimension of our quantum multiverse;
4/ Some scientists now speculate that our apparent universe may be a simulation in an enormous computer in an outer real universe. In that case programmers in that outer universe could arbitrarily create phenomena in ours and these would appear supernatural. Many UFO students claim visions of the virgin Mary as UFO events especially the one at Fatima.
Elaine, based on what we know now, it is physically impossible to approximate the speed of light. It is the ultimate speed limit. On the other hand, as was pointed out earlier, gravity does not seem to have a measurable speed. It is instantaneous, as far as can be determined. It takes about eight minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth. However, the sun’s gravity acts on the earth’s orbit now, not as the orbit was eight minutes ago.